For example: black adder venom. From the frequency of the poison, am I required to make a saving throw per minute for every six minutes? Each time I fail a save, do I take 1d2 str damage? Or do I take all the strength loss once all failed rounds are finished/frequency is over? It just looks like quite a chore referencing each round for ability score drops and I am really unclear on the rules.

If I succeed at rolling a saving throw, do I no longer need to check? And to remove the poison effect (strength loss) I will need to be cured through the various tools offered?

3 Answers
3

The frequency tells you how often you make a save, once the onset time has passed

If there is no onset, you make a save immediately

The poison is finished when the conditions for a cure are met, or the duration has elapsed

For black adder venom, there is no onset, and the frequency is 1/round for 6 rounds. The cure is 1 save. That means that:

Since there is no onset, when you are hit by the poison, you make a save immediately.

If you fail, you take 1d2 Str damage. If you succeed, you've met the conditions for a cure, and so the poison is now out of your system.

Because the frequency is 1/round for 6 round you repeat this once per round until you either make a save (and thus are cured) or 6 rounds have elapsed. Every time you fail a save, you take the damage. This damage can be healed by any of the normal means of recovering strength (restoration spells, resting, etc.)

The second example of a sting is almost identical: the frequency and cure are the same, but the effect is being sickened. The effect is that you're sickened until the poison is up, which is either the first time you make a save or after 6 rounds. (Note that if someone e.g. used magic to heal you of the sickened effect, it would return the next round. It's 1 round of sickened applied 6 times in a row, not 6 rounds of sickened applied once.)

This all follows from the general rules for afflictions -- a category which include poisons and diseases. Diseases tend to have a longer onset time and lower frequency than poisons, but the basic mechanics are the same. If you still find yourself confused, take the time to read through the afflictions page I linked to.

in his second example, the sicken effect was "sickened for 1 round", not until the poison is up. usually this amounts to the same thing, since after that 1 round you save again, and either renew the sickening or cure the poison, but it might make a difference in some cases if someone has an ability/item/plot device/whatever that alters frequencies or that delays the further progression of a poison, such as Delay Poison (though the ambiguity in that spell's "ceases to affect subject" wording makes it kinda a poor example.)
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Matthew NajmonJun 20 '13 at 18:01

This answer is not entirely correct. 'Since there is no onset, you make a save immediately' is misleading. You make a save immediately regardless of onset time. 'If you fail, you take 1d2 Str damage' is also wrong. You don't suffer the effects of the poison until you fail a save on your own turn.
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Eric BOct 15 '13 at 15:27

The wizard fails 2 more saves, and dies. He should not have gone adventuring alone.

This example illustrates pretty much every case about which I've seen confusion in the past. You don't suffer the poison's effects until your turn, whereas whether you are poisoned or not and the dosage is decided on the enemy's turn. This is stated in the afflictions section, emphasis mine:

The affliction's effect does not occur until after the onset period
has elapsed and then only if further saving throws are failed.

This poison and many others have no onset, so the afflicted character must begin making saves immediately on his turn. In no way does the lack of an onset imply that ability damage is taken the instant poison is contracted. This is inconsistent with all other afflictions and essentially adds one more ability damage roll to a poison that it should not. The roll to determine whether or not you are poisoned is entirely distinct from the roll to determine the effects of the poison.

The distinction between contracting and curing a poison is important because as poisons crop up with more complicated cure conditions, sticking to this consistent set of rules will make things much less confusing. For example, a phase spider's venom requires two consecutive saves to cure. If you took ability damage immediately on failing the first save, that would imply that even if you passed you would still be poisoned and have to save again. That is incorrect. If you make your save against contracting a poison, it does not affect you, regardless of cure condition. By keeping the rolls for contracting and curing separate, you avoid this type of confusion entirely.

I really like this interpretation of the rules, but the official blog post that another answer linked to directly contradicts this. Valeros is hit by an arrow coated in greenblood oil. He fails the DC 13 Fort save and takes 1 point of Con damage. At the end of his turn, he fails a saving throw against the poison and takes 1 more point of Con damage.
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BobsonAug 28 '14 at 14:19

This sums up the rules with the scenarios pretty well. It seems that you do take the damage of the poison on your initial saving throw at the moment you were hit with the poison. you make another save on your turn and start the frequency clock.